Specialist clean energy investor Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT) has invested £6.4 million in Simply Blue Holdings, giving it a 12% stake in Simply Blue Group, which develops marine projects focused on floating offshore wind.
SBG said it has developed a pipeline of over 9GW of floating offshore wind projects, primarily in the waters of the UK and Ireland. It also has interests in wave energy and ancillary interests in sustainable aquaculture. SBG is headquartered in Cork, Ireland, with offices in the UK and the US.
ORIT’s investment is a co-investment alongside another fund managed by Octopus Renewables Limited.
Chris Gaydon, Investment Director at Octopus Renewables, said, “Floating offshore wind is a particularly exciting renewable energy sector which is expected to undergo rapid growth over the years to come and is a key part of government decarbonisation plans in a number of European countries. We believe Simply Blue is very well positioned to capture this growth.”
Phil Austin, chair of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust plc, said:
“I am pleased to announce ORIT’s first investment into a renewable energy developer, as well as our first investment in the fast-growing offshore floating wind sector. This investment will further diversify ORIT’s potential to create capital growth and may in time bring opportunities to invest in construction-ready assets arising from SBG’s development pipeline.”
Octopus Renewables, launched in 2010, now has a diverse portfolio of assets with a capacity of over 2.8GW.

Further reading
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